Hello all,
When we met in July we both had not finished ‘Into the River’. I still have not! May I suggest we finsih that one to discuss at our next gathering? I can do 21 August or September 11 onwards. what does everyone think?

Sorry for radio silence- work has been taking too much attention and I’ve been away a ton for work too. I’m going to be away on the last biz trip of this contract until 26th September so if we could delay one week I’ll be there.
Hope everyone is well - looking forward to catching up

Nice to see you all last night! We chose the book ‘Life’ by Keith Richards for our next read and we’ll meet on Tuesday 6 November at the Tipplers at 7:45 for 8. Hope to see you there! Nb the 3 tapas deal doesn’t seem to be on anymore but there is still a good selection of small plates.

Anyone wanting to join us, you are welcome - just read the book and turn up. We usually sit in the front by the windows.

Hello Everyone, here's the list as promised, the theme is New Year's Eve. If you can PM me your choice, I'll post the winner next week.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 208 PP
At Camelot one New Year's Day the feasting knights are interrupted by a gigantic green knight who arrives for a trial of blows. Sir Gawain decapitates him, but he picks up his head and leaves, challenging Gawain to meet him next New Year's Day, when he will have to bare his neck for a return blow.

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen 74 PP
At Christmas, Nora and her husband talk about how everything will be better in the New Year: he will have a new job and all their money worries will be over. Nora tells the threatening Krogstad: "As soon as the new year comes, I shall in a very short time be free of the whole thing." So she is, but not as she imagined – slamming the door on her family as the new year dawns.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith 608 PP
Smith's novel begins on New Year's Day 1975, with Archie Jones trying to kill himself. He fails and ends up at a New Year's Eve party that is still going from the night before. There he meets Clara, a vision of eccentric perfection, and before long he has another wife.

The Children of Men by PD James 292 PP
Is this the glummest new year in recent fiction? On New Year's Day, 2021, "the last human being to be born on earth was killed in a pub brawl". He was 25, a significant age because, in James's dystopian tale, it has been 25 years since a pandemic made all human beings infertile. On the same day Theodore Faron begins his journal of humanity's last days.

I’m enjoying the book and may follow Kenneth’s lead and watch the film if I have time before Tuesday.

I volunteered to do a list and I’ve picked four books from Goodreads Reader Awards (week, one of them is the precursor to a book on the list)... they don’t really shar any other qualities except being picked as great fiction by readers (: Blurbs copied from Google Books

Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages.
Watching over them is the resort's director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired bodies and minds.
These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.
With her wit, compassion and uncanny understanding of human behaviour, Liane Moriarty explores the depth of connection that can be formed when people are thrown together in... unconventional circumstances.

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
A thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a strange painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious thirteen-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist's home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors.

Beartown by Fredrick Beckman
Winning a junior ice hockey championship might not mean a lot to the average person, but it means everything to the residents of Beartown, a community slowly being eaten alive by unemployment and the surrounding wilderness. A victory like this would draw national attention to the ailing town: it could attract government funding and an influx of talented athletes who would choose Beartown over the big nearby cities. A victory like this would certainly mean everything to Amat, a short, scrawny teenager who is treated like an outcast everywhere but on the ice; to Kevin, a star player just on the cusp of securing his golden future in the NHL; and to Peter, their dedicated general manager whose own professional hockey career ended in tragedy. At first, it seems like the team might have a shot at fulfilling the dreams of their entire town. But one night at a drunken celebration following a key win, something happens between Kevin and the general manager's daughter--and the next day everything seems to have changed. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected. With so much riding on the success of the team, the line between loyalty and betrayal becomes difficult to discern. At last, it falls to one young man to find the courage to speak the truth that it seems no one else wants to hear.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
The Carls just appeared.
Roaming through New York City at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship—like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armor—April and her friend, Andy, make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day, April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world—from Beijing to Buenos Aires—and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight.
Seizing the opportunity to make her mark on the world, April now has to deal with the consequences her new particular brand of fame has on her relationships, her safety, and her own identity. And all eyes are on April to figure out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.

Hi is the next meeting going ahead next Tues? I am new and would like to come along, having read the set book. I found it an extraordinary novel - not as I had at all anticipated. It was great to get a recommendation off my normal fiction radar, and by an author I would never have chosen alone! M

Sadly I will not be able join you tomorrow as I inadvertently double booked myself with something I’d forgotten to put in my diary. It’s a shame as was really looking forward to discussing the book. I will pm my vote for next month’s book to Susan.
Hope you have a good evening and a lovely Christmas 🎄🎄🎄
See you next year.

We were a bijoux group last night and had a good discussion about the Children of Men.

We chose Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty for our January read and will meet on 22 January at 7:45 for 8. Tippler menu has been somewhat reduced and the 3for offer is no more...much as I like this venue, if people will be expecting to eat dinner (I do) then we might want to consider alternatives? Let’s chat when we meet in January.

I offered to do the February list if anyone else is burning to do it, let me know)